Pizza style boxes are currently available in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Many of the boxes include a square bottom panel, upright sidewalls, and a single lid panel that folds over the entire container. The sidewalls are typically formed as “rollover” walls that require a person to fold a first panel around a second panel and then secure the second panel into place. These boxes often need to be made out of corrugated cardboard for strength. If corrugated cardboard or a heavy gauge of cardboard is not used there is the risk that the box would not securely hold the pizza. In other words, the lighter boxes can not be stacked when full with pizza since the heat would soften the boxes and cause them to collapse.
A pizza parlor is often faced with the decision to either pay for the more expensive boxes, which is reflected in the price of the pizza, or use the cheaper boxes and risk damage to the pizza during delivery or while the customer is transporting the pizza home. In addition, many pizza parlors will use hundreds of pizza boxes at a single location during the dinner and evening hours making it necessary to assemble the boxes ahead of time during these rush periods.
If the lighter boxes are used, the owner is faced with the dilemma of whether the lighter boxes containing pizza can be stacked high enough so that they fit in the limited usually available in a pizza parlor or slow down pizza sales during the busiest time of the day. Most pizza parlor owners choose to pay for the more expensive heavier gauge corrugated boxes so that the problems stated above are mitigated. To do so, the pizza parlor owner will pay as much as two times as much per box than the lighter material box which he has to either take out of his profit margin or pass the additional cost onto the consumer in the price of the pizza.
Another disadvantage with the current pizza boxes used today no matter if they are corrugated or non-corrugated is that when the boxes are placed on a dinner table they are big and bulky. In fact, anyone that eats pizza knows that the common method of serving pizza in a home, at a party, or at work, is to place the pizza box on the table, open the box and tear the top of the box off so as to expose the pizza for consumption. This method is accepted by many, but is not preferred especially when the pizza is being served at a child's birthday party or at a party at the office. The torn box method is not only difficult to do but the often unevenly ripped box looks terrible.
Getting the pizza out of the box and onto a serving tray is virtually impossible with the current boxes available today. The problems associated with tarring the cover of the box is only compounded when the heavier/corrugated boxes are used. Therefore, the pizza parlor owner solves one problem by using the more expensive boxes but presents another problem to consumer when they try to tear the box in order to serve it. Either way, the inability to serve the whole pizza is a problem that does not go away.
What is needed is a box that overcomes these problems as well as others. The current invention does just that. The pizza-serve™ box of the present invention is a two piece system that includes a pizza box and a serving tray that fits inside the box in which the pizza is placed on before the box is closed. The pizza-serve™ box is cheaper than the heavier corrugated box but yet solves the existing problems discussed above. The serving tray that is placed in the box adds support to the overall structure of the box and therefore allows for a cheaper lighter gauge box to be used. Using the non-corrugated box with the tray allows the box to be cheaper but yet has the strength of the more expensive heavier/corrugated box.
Secondly, the serving tray allows the consumer to easily and safely remove the pizza from the box and place the pizza on the table for consumption. The serving tray makes the method of tearing the cover off of the box to expose the pizza obsolete.
In addition, the pizza parlor does not need to use wax paper on the bottom of the box like is commonly done today to prevent oil from seeping through the box because the serving tray will provide that function. This is yet another way the pizza parlor owner saves real money that goes right to the bottom line. All-in-all, the pizza box of the present invention solves the problems with the current pizza boxes, provides additional features and cost less money than using the alternative corrugated boxes used today.